In my mind, there are three different kinds of leaks. The “Genuine” leak, where some unappreciated ninja gets some secret info and sends it to whoever can get it to the Internet without getting them in trouble. There’s the “Corporate” leak, where a company is leaking information in an attempt to create buzz. And then there’s the “Fakies.”

The Fakies are made by people who desperately need a hug, by Internet trolls who are “doin it for tha lulz,” or by blogs desperate for page views. Recently there’s been an upswing of Fakies in the general direction of the upcoming Nexus 3, or whatever it’s going to be called.

Remember that HTC device that was leaked a few weeks ago? You know the one. No buttons, lots of screen real estate, photoshopped by the owner of a tech site just lookin’ to make it big in the crazy ol’ world?

Maybe you didn’t know that last part, but the digital Jedis of the world dropped down on him in a godly firestorm the likes of which have caused him to retract nearly the entire article. Nearly. For some reason, the image is still there, but the details have been [Redacted].

This week we have this LG picture that’s been flying around the Android blogosphere. It looks awfully legit. You can see the LG logo on it and everything, and everyone knows we are pretty solidly set that LG is the one most likely to bring the world the next Nexus thingy. So, why haven’t we written anything on this seemingly legit drop from LG?

Well, we did, back in September of 2010 when it was the release image for the unveiling of the LG Optimus One series of phones. Seems pretty unlikely that LG would use the exact same hardware design and then use the exact same press imagery. But hey, it’s a tough economy right?

What makes each of these even remotely believable at first glance are the unknowns that come with Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS). The biggest speculative leap that’s been made regarding ICS phones is the complete removal of the soft buttons, which both leaks and the conversations that followed seemed to indicate. While Android 3.0 is certainly devoid of soft buttons, I think that’s born out of necessity given the size of those devices. Simply put, there is no convenient place to put soft buttons on a 10″ tablet, whereas phones have a rather organic place for them to live.

Whether or not ICS devices like the next Nexus will have soft keys is a mystery. Even if the Nexus is devoid of these buttons, there’s nothing that says that manufacturers will immediately follow suit. After all, look how long it’s taking other manufacturers to get an NFC device to market.

Leaks are fun. They’re fun to read and fun to write about, and it’s fun to watch everyone light up and share their ideas for what happens next. It’s a really cool experience, especially for someone who has been on both sides of the fence. Let’s not get carried away though, alright?

Well, as the Founder of TechHog.com, I saw that my “Open Letter” had a link back to it, from this site and the other site where this exact story was written word for word. So I don’t believe it is entirely this site’s fault, but, I did in fact state that it was NOT our doing. I even went as far has having people debunk the photo for me and put out a call to Google and the Android Dev Team to help me prove the legitimacy of my friends employment. So perhaps this guy who wrote the original story and whom ever re-posted their story here, should re-read what they post and get the information correct.

We, at Techhog.com, did not create the image, we merely posted it, in thinking it was real. Thankfully friends of ours pointed out the inaccuracies and allowed us to correct all wrongs.

Either way, LG needs to do the next Nexus. Even with the G2x issues right now, the phone is still incredibly fast throughout the UI and browser – and when those updates kick in, I’m sure those issues will iron out, hopefully! And I’m sure by December when LG throws a quad-core processor in a pure Google phone – its gonna be out of hand!!

There’s a fourth type of leak: corporate misinformation. Corporations deliberately sneak out false information and pictures about phones that do not exist, or will not ever ship (failed mock-ups, prototypes and the like) in an effort to misinform their competitors on what they’re working on. It also has the effect of creating buzz for the company, though that’s not necessarily the main purpose of this type of leak.

Kinda agree with the fourth type of leak…and i think we maybe seeing that with all the iPhone rumors. My objective guess is NO WAY Apple will make the iPhone 5 a 3.5 inch screen. I fore see a 4 inch screen maybe on the same design as iPhone 4…the competition has moved way past 3.5 screens. Love the competition between Android and iOS…makes for better devices cz everyone is trying to push the envelope. That said i am all Android..enlisted to Andys army with the N1.

The Phone will be made by HTC. The picture there has been around for months. In fact it was thought that that it would be the droid incredible hd coming out in january for verizon. The verizon logo has been photoshopped off. We are working on the phone and it will be made by htc. It will not have a 5 inch screen. It will have a 4.3-4.5 in. It will also have a quad core chipset, not by tegra. I will release more information as it comes in. I also have released other information in other articles.